Month: September 2018

Having contracted by 0.4% in the first quarter Irish real GDP grew by 2.5% in q2, bringing the annual growth rate to 9.0%, following a 9.3% rise in q1. The implication is that is that the consensus forecast for the year as a whole ( 5.4% on Focus Economics) is too low and indeed our own projection of 6.5% may need revising, although the annual growth rate is likely to slow appreciably in the second half of the year given strong base effects.

One surprising feature of GDP in recent years is the modest growth recorded in consumer spending, given the pace of employment and income growth. That appears to be changing however, with the annual increase in real consumption accelerating to 4.4% in the second quarter. Government consumption is also growing strongly, at 4.2%, as is building and construction, up over 13% , driven by a 38% surge in house building. Spending on machinery and equipment excluding aircraft leasing rose by 26% so overall capital formation by the domestic economy rose by 13%, which when added to personal and government consumption gives a 6.2% rise in modified domestic demand, following a similar increase in q1.

Some prefer this concept as a better measure of real activity in the Irish economy but GDP as a whole is the international standard, which means taking account of aircraft leasing, spending by multinationals on R&D and intellectual property (Intangibles), and of course exports and imports. Intangibles are notoriously volatile and this was indeed the case in q2, with an annual decline of 63%, with the result that total capital formation actually fell very sharply, by 32%, giving a very different picture than the domestic investment data would imply about investment spending in Ireland.

Most of this Intangible spending is also captured as a service import, and as a result overall imports fell by an annual 6.0%, in contrast to an 11.3% increase in exports. So when account is taken of these largely multinational related activities net exports contributed some 20 percentage points to annual GDP growth, offset by an over 10 percentage points contraction from capital spending.

This contribution approach is particularly problematical when one looks at the quarterly change in real GDP. Here, the net export contribution was 6.8 points, which when added to a strong stock build and a modest rise in dometic demand implies the economy grew by 8.3% in the quarter. The reported figure of only 2.5% reflects a very large statistical adjustment of -€2.4bn

In July, Permanent tsb sold a portfolio of around 10,700 residential mortgages. According to the bank 2,500 of these borowers were not co-operating and a further 3,850 had failed or refused treatment, which raisies the issue of strategic defaulters or debtors who won’t pay as opposed to being unable to pay. How big is this cohort and how significant are they in the context of Irish arrears?

Mortgage arrears in Ireland are extraordinarily high by international standards but have been falling steadily for some time now. The number of PDH loans in arrears for over 90 days peaked at just shy of 100,000 five years ago, equivalent to 12.9% of outstanding PDH mortgages, and according to the Central Bank the latest figure, for q2 2018, was 46,000 or 6.3%.

What determines arrears? We have developed a model in which PDH arrears are positively related to unemployment (affecting the borrowers income) and the mortgage rate (over 80% of Irish mortgages are on a variable rate) and negatively affected by the trend in house prices, which presumably is picking up an equity affect.

The chart illustrates the model results and the actual level of arrears. Rising unemployment and falling house prices combined to drive arrears higher from 2009 onwards before reversing course as the labour market improved and house prices began to recover. Those factors are still in place and so the model is continuing to predict lower arrears, although it is also clear that over the past few years there is a systematic error , in that arrears are running consistently higher than the above fundamentals imply.

Of course mortgage loans are secured and the level of arrears will be affected by the number of repossessions , which are also extremely low in Ireland relative to the level of non-performing loans. In fact PDH repossessions are falling and those stemming from a court order (as opposed to a voluntray surrender) peaked three years ago, declining to an annual 439 in q2 from well over 700 in 2015.

Our model predicts an arrears figure of 32,000 for q2 this year, which is 14,000 below the actual outurn. The implication is that arrears should be falling faster given what is an extremely favourable economic backdrop, implying a more intractable problem and also picking up some degree of strategic defaulters.